NEW LOOK ISSUE The fanzine devoted to Doctor Who Gaming ISSUE # 5 ‰DOCUMENTS FOR THE FUTURE‰ ADVENTURE MODULE „PLANET OF THE BROKEN‰ ADVENTURE MODULE ONE DIE TO RULE THEM ALL - GREATEST SCI-FI FILMS CHICAGO TARDIS 2010 CON REPORT and MORE... 1 EDITOR’S NOTES CONTENTS Welcome to our new look issue! Well, we have not changed that much in our fan‐ EDITOR’S NOTES 2 zine but we did update a few items to improve our pres‐ REVIEW: Doctor Who Solitary Story Game 3 entation. We have a new main logo to match the current A Perfect Gift for Any Dorkbomber 5 series logo, as well as a new die logo that will appear at Doctor Who‐Adventures in Time & Space Forum 6 the end of our articles, to let readers know that the arti‐ Doctor Who for the iPad and iPhone 6 cle they are reading is wrapping up. Thanks to the efforts The Greatest Sci‐Fi Films 7 of one of our ardent supporters for creating these for us! RETRO REVIEW: The Rebel’s Gamble 14 This issue has some great items in it for our read‐ MODULE: “Documents For The Future” 15 ers. The article ”One Die to Rule Them All” is a follow on One Die To Rule Them All 17 from our poll in Issue #2, and comes with a lot of charts d10 Conversion Charts 19 that we think many players will enjoy, and would allow EVENT REPORT: Chicago TARDIS 2010 Con 27 players to convert the Doctor Who RPGs to a percentile MODULE: “Planet of the Broken” 46 system if desired! Our article on the Chicago TARDIS GM TIPS: A Look At Game Time Management 49 2010 Doctor Who convention should also be a fun read. Tips on Speeding Up a Game 49 It was here that some of the DDWRPG staff and writers Things for Timely GMs to Consider 51 were able to do a panel on Doctor Who role‐playing PLAYER TIPS: After the Game 52 games. We were also able to be part of running an ad‐ GAMER POLL: Favorite Beverage at a Game 53 venture using the new Cubicle 7 rules. The convention CARTOON: Our UNIT 53 was a brilliant event and we hope that our readers sup‐ BACK COVER: Coming Next Issue 54 port the con. Our article on “The Greatest Sci‐Fi Films” grew beyond our expectations as we surveyed those films that we felt were indispensable to having a great back‐ ground in science fiction film. We encourage our readers who have not seen all the films in our list to give them a watch. Obviously not every film will be everyone’s cup of tea, but watching them should broaden anyone’s hori‐ zons. We also have a look at time management for Game Masters. Making sure that games start and end on time is key to a good gaming experience especially when play‐ ers have responsibilities outside the game. Hopefully we can give you a few tips to help you out. MAGE IS THE MILWAUKEE SCHOOL OF ENGINEERING’S We are always looking for new contributors, so if (MSOE) SCIENCE FICTION, GAMING, ANIME’ AND CHESS CLUB. you want to be a part of our team, contact us at the fol‐ IT COMBINED THE SCHOOL’S ORIGINAL DOCTOR WHO CLUB (“The Time Engineers”) WITH THE GAMING CLUB (“The Gam‐ lowing address: [email protected] . ing Association”) AND ADDED ANIME’. THE NAME ORIGI‐ We hope that you enjoy this issue and that it adds NALLY WAS AN ACRONYMN THAT STOOD FOR “MSOE ANIME to your gaming and Doctor Who enjoyment. Remember AND GAMING ENTHUSIASTS” BUT WHEN THE UNIVERSITY’S to send us your comments, articles and submissions. CHESS CLUB FOLDED AND WAS ABSORBED BY MAGE, THE CLUB’S ACRONYMN SIMPLY BECAME THE NAME. THE CLUB ‐Nick “Zepo” Seidler HAS SUPPORTED THE DDWRPG DOCTOR WHO RPG CAM‐ PAIGN FOR THE PAST 13 YEARS! DIARY OF THE DOCTOR WHO ROLE-PLAYING GAMES - A DOCTOR WHO FANZINE is published by the Earthbound TimeLords © 2010. Issue #5 published 10 December 2010. The fanzine is published for the purpose of review and enhancement of the Doctor Who television program and its related Doctor Who role-playing games and is FREE. ‘Doctor Who’ and related photos are copyright to the BBC, and no infringement of their (or anyone else's) copyrights is intended. Articles are copyright of their respective authors. Support the BBC and the program. Contact the Earthbound TimeLords at [email protected] . Print Run is Electronic. This issue of the fanzine is dedicated to the members of MAGE, the science fiction, gaming, anime and chess club at the Milwaukee School of Engineering who have been active players in our ongoing Doctor Who RPG campaign from 1997 until present. Thanks to all of the players that were and are a part of our continuing campaign. 2 REVIEW: THE DOCTOR WHO SOLITARY STORY GAME •••½ of ••••• FAN–MADE SOLO PLAY RPG GAME FREE DOWNLOAD DOWNLOADABLE AT: http://www.boardgamegeek.com If one is going to look for a unique gaming experience, and wants to play a game all by themselves, an item that you might find interesting is the fan‐made Doctor Who Solitary Story Game by Simon Cogan. First of all, this game is completely free to those that are interested and it is available on‐line as a download. It is not an official product, but if it was, it would be a great start! The concept of the Doctor Who Solitary Story Game is a bit like a choose‐your‐ own‐adventure book, except that the game comes in four general books (the Rules Booklet, the Events Booklet, the Adventure Booklet, and the Enemy Booklet – all pic‐ tured on the left). Rather than make only a single decision at each juncture, the game is played in turns. In each turn, the player follows a set order of play to include an Ac‐ tion, then usually an Encounter, and sometimes some Fighting. As each of these stages of a turn happens you are referred to a specific paragraph that can be found in one of the game’s four main books, and often you have to roll 2d6 to determine the outcome of certain situations that happen. After the turn is finished, the player than begins the next turn and follows the game pattern over again, as they try to solved the mystery or adventure at hand. As a player follows the instructions of the paragraphs, and makes their way through the free‐form story, they may acquire new equipment, allies, or companions. By the end, you may find yourself having defeated the villains or having been thwarted in your attempt. The game’s realization is a bit of a mixed bag. The game looks great and has wonderful cover artwork. Inside the images are nice and the layout clear and easy to focus on. However, when we first tried to play the game using the instructions in the rule book, we got a bit lost as to what we were supposed to do. It can sometimes be hard to understand where to start or where to go, as the game directs one to different paragraphs in different books to follow the story arc. Understanding what to do in a turn and how to proceed with play is not completely self‐evident. Reading just the basic rules at the start of the Rules Booklet did not help us enough to understand the game at first read. However, once we downloaded the Example of Play, we were able to catch on to how the game’s story telling style works, and proceed through a game. The example of play really should be a part of the Rules Booklet proper. It is invalu‐ able for enjoying the game. It does take some time to get used to the coding system for each book. For example e230 means paragraph 230 in the Events Booklet, but there is also an Enemy Booklet (which obviously also starts with the letter “e”) so that was confusing as there were a number of times we could not remember which book to go to. The Enemy Booklet’s paragraphs actually start with the letter “v”. If this is the case why not sim‐ ply call it the “Villains Booklet” and avoid the confusion? Sure, we know that Daleks are monsters not villains, but in a story based game such as this every indicator that helps one through the story, rather than breaking up the pace by making one look for the right book, makes the game flow and play better. At the very least, perhaps a large letter in the right hand corner of each booklet’s cover would quickly remind us which paragraphs are inside each booklet. Also hard to follow was that paragraphs in each booklet start with different numbers. For example, all Adventure Booklet paragraphs are numbers that are in the THE GAME’S FOUR CORE BOOKS 3 400s (Rules Booklet paragraphs are in the 300s, Events Booklet paragraphs are in 000s, and Enemy Booklet paragraphs are in the 500s). We could not figure out why the num‐ bering was so spread out, especially since the paragraphs each start with a letter desig‐ nator for the book anyway. Every adventure is started in the TARDIS on the first page of the of the Adventure Booklet at paragraph a400. This was confusing in two ways: first, the game itself does not start in the core rule book, and secondly it starts at the number 400. Why not have the first paragraph of every adventure start in the rule book (where most players will start their understanding of the game), at the first paragraph of play (thus r001 seems the logical place for every game to begin and branch out from).